The Career of Hershel McGriff

Photo Credit: Getty Images

By Zane Miller

In the almost 80-year long history of NASCAR racing, no other driver has been connected to the operation longer than Hershel McGriff. The native of Portland, Oregon first became interested in competing in NASCAR following a chance encounter with founder Bill France in 1950, which led to a racing career spanning at least the next 68 years. As one driver put it, “I think Moses even raced against Hershel McGriff.”

Born on December 14^th, 1927, McGriff showed interest in going fast before even reaching grade school. At age seven, he obtained a goat from his uncle and used the artiodactyl to pull him around his family’s property on a cart. His penchant for driving at any opportunity continued to blossom, as by the time he turned 15 years old he not only owned his own car, but had also worked as a train operator, ambulance driver, milk delivery driver and a bus driver for the church his father served at as a pastor. The heavy workload took its toll on McGriff’s classwork, and he decided to drop out of school sometime around eighth grade.

McGriff certainly had an impressive amount of automobile experience given his age, which came in handy as he ran in his first organized race in 1945. Now, many auto races at the time were set up by track owners themselves rather than a sanctioning body, so official records are hard to come by. That being said, according to McGriff, he finished his debut race 12^th in the 40-car field, driving his dad’s 1940 Hudson. He continued to race in various events on half-mile and short dirt tracks around the Pacific Northwest, culminating in a 1949 campaign in which he won eight of the 12 races entered. Adding credence to this claim is what happened when McGriff took part in the inaugural Carrera Panamericana in May of 1950.

The Carrera Panamericana was a six-day long rally car event which essentially entailed racing the entire length of Mexico, starting in the city of Ciudad Juarez (a few miles south of El Paso, Texas) and finishing in Ciudad Cuauhtemoc, near the Guatemalan border. Although McGriff would have a co-driver in Ray Elliott, who had served as his crew chief the year before, and the race would have breaks to allow the drivers to sleep, the field of nearly 200 participants were in for a grueling week ahead. On top of that, McGriff drove the same Oldsmobile that he would be using in the race from Portland to Ciudad Juarez, making for an exhausting journey before the race even started (keep in mind this was also before the US Interstate Highway System was developed). However, McGriff was about to receive the biggest break of his career.

Also competing in that year’s Carrera Panamericana was none other than Bill France himself, the founder of NASCAR with his descendants in charge of the operation to this day. While he had started the NASCAR Strictly Stock Division (now NASCAR Cup Series) a year prior, France was still a driver at heart and sought to add to his already impressive list of career accomplishments with a win at the cross-country battle royale.

In case you were wondering, safety for the event was not set at a high standard for the competitors nor spectators, as the drivers not only had limited protective equipment but also faced steep cliffs and jagged rock-filled embankments should they go off course. Meanwhile, crowds were allowed to congregate dangerously close to the racing surface. Two drivers, Jesus Reyes Molina of Peru and Enrique Hachmeister of Guatemala, lost their lives in separate accidents, while one spectator was also killed during the event.

The tag team of McGriff and Elliott jumped out as the favorites, as the pair took a commanding lead. France was impressed by McGriff’s skills behind the wheel and met with him at some point during the week. France pitched his new series to the Oregon native, but one upcoming race France was particularly excited about was the Southern 500 at the newly built 1.25-mile Darlington Raceway in northeastern South Carolina. Though McGriff was previously unaware of the new track and had not yet raced on a track of that size, he took him up on the invitation to run in the race that September.

McGriff and Elliott endured the treacherous conditions across the Mexican landscape, but at the end of the sixth and final day they would be the ones to lift the trophy as winners of the inaugural Carrera Panamericana, outlasting fellow Americans Thomas Deal and Sam Cresap by over a full minute (France’s car DNF’d due to a broken radiator). Unfortunately, I was unable to find much information regarding what happened to Elliott after this race, except for the fact that he competed in what would be the final original Carrera Panamericana in 1954 and finished 27^th with co-driver Edward Stark. However, there was no doubt where McGriff was headed next.

Racing in the very same Oldsmobile 88 coupe that he used to win in Mexico, McGriff made the trek to the Palmetto State for the inaugural Southern 500 and his Cup Series debut, which would be run on September 4^th, 1950. Since he didn’t have his own pit crew, he stopped by a gas station in the nearby town of Florence where he was able to convince a handful of employees to service his car. McGriff would get his money’s worth out of his rag-tag pit crew, as the 500-miler quickly went down in history as being notoriously harsh on tires.

Many teams severely underestimated the amount of tire wear the brand-new pavement would create, with the drivers mainly having a dirt track racing background rather than asphalt. This led to a number of unscheduled pit stops for most of the field, but Long Beach, California’s Johnny Mantz foresaw this issue and planned accordingly before the race. Mantz brought truck tires instead of normal racing tires to the track, making him much slower in qualifying as he started 43^rd in the 75-car field. However, the improved durability of the truck tires paid off on race day, as he took the lead on lap 50 and never looked back, winning by nine laps for his first and only Cup Series win. For McGriff, who “never heard so many tires squeal in all [his] life”, he ended the Labor Day classic 26 laps down, but still finished a solid ninth for his first career top-10 in Cup.

McGriff ran his Oldsmobile in five more Cup races in 1951, though the most notable of these was none other than the second running of Darlington’s Southern 500. The race featured 82 drivers in the starting lineup, a record which has never been broken, with McGriff taking the fifth spot on the grid. This allowed him to earn his first-ever lap led in NASCAR as he got by Jesse James Taylor for the lead on lap 12, but was unable to stay there long. Regardless, he improved on his career-best finish, being scored 10 laps down in fourth behind winner Herb Thomas. McGriff ran even more sparingly at the Cup Series level in both 1952 and 1953, though the May 1953 race at Raleigh Speedway saw him have his best shot at winning to that point. He took the lead on lap 95 and led the way for just over 100 laps, before a wheel bearing failed and put him out of the race, handing the lead and eventual win to Fonty Flock. However, the race is most remembered for Fonty’s brother, Tim, being forced to pit when his monkey, Jocko Flocko, that he had ride along in the car became agitated and started attacking the driver. Neither the monkey nor Flock were seriously hurt in the incident, but Jocko Flocko did not ride with Flock during a race again.

To this point, McGriff had only used his own cars in Cup races, but that changed during the 1954 season when he struck a deal to drive for Frank Christian, husband of NASCAR’s first female driver Sara Christian. This also meant that McGriff would have the opportunity to run the majority of remaining 23 races, rather than just a few starts here and there. Using Christian’s #14 Oldsmobile for most of the season, the arrangement immediately starting paying dividends. He scored a third-place finish at the same Raleigh Speedway he nearly won at the year before, then finished second to Curtis Turner at Columbia Speedway in June. Shortly after, McGriff strung together three top-10 finishes with a seventh at Hickory Speedway (now Hickory Motor Speedway), a fifth at Monroe County Fairgrounds and a third at Williams Grove Speedway. With speed like this, it was only a matter of time before McGriff found himself in victory lane.

On August 22^nd, the series made their way out to the San Francisco Bay Area for a rare west coast race, as 41 drivers would take on Bay Meadows Speedway in San Mateo. While this was the debut Cup Series race at the one-mile dirt track, this fit right into McGriff’s wheelhouse as he not only was back on the west coast where he grew up, but gained much of his expertise while racing on dirt. Starting from the pole, McGriff successfully held off all challengers for nearly all of the event. Late in the going, fellow Portlander Bill Amick started closing in on McGriff despite being the only other remaining car on the lead lap. However, McGriff’s red Oldsmobile proved too strong to overcome and he fended off Amick for his first career Cup Series victory. There is a discrepancy as to whether he led every lap of the race or all but one lap, but most sources indicate that he indeed led wire-to-wire.

From there, McGriff was nearly unstoppable for the final two months of the season. He backed up his first win with a second-place finish at Corbin Speedway, though an engine failure robbed him of a possible good run at Darlington after starting third. The series returned to McGriff’s bread-and-butter with a dirt track in Macon, Georgia known as Central City Speedway. He started on the outside front row and tailed behind pole winner Tim Flock, who was only racing on a part-time basis this season. In the late stages of the race, however, Flock’s car fell off the pace, putting McGriff in the catbird seat. He made no mistake in the final 20 laps, going on to win what would be the final race held at Central City Speedway as it was torn down two years later.

The next race on the calendar saw the drivers visit yet another half-mile dirt oval, which was just fine as far as McGriff was concerned. He started on the pole at Charlotte’s Southern States Fairgrounds and whooped the field, winning the event by a full lap. Unfortunately, lap leader data for this race was lost to time, but it is certainly possible that he led every lap in this race too. Just two days later, McGriff tackled the infamous Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania (yes, the races were held on the same weekend despite being over 500 miles apart), where he collected a third-place finish as the last car on the lead lap.

After a respectable ninth at Memphis-Arkansas Speedway, McGriff nearly won at Martinsville Speedway (then a dirt track) but settled for second behind winner Lee Petty. In the season finale at North Wilkesboro Speedway (also a dirt track at the time) on October 24^th, McGriff started on the pole for the fifth time in 1954, but didn’t even get to lead a lap before being overtaken by fellow west coast racer Dick Rathmann. McGriff finally got the lead back from Rathmann on lap 85, but still had to contend with Buck Baker and Herb Thomas for the victory. He outlasted both in the final laps for his fourth victory of the season. Tragically, the race was marred by the death of Inglewood, California’s Lou Figaro, who lost his life in a late crash. This would also be McGriff’s last win at the Cup Series level.

Despite missing a large chunk of the beginning of the season, McGriff still rebounded to finish a career-high sixth in the final standings. However, instead of following up the breakout campaign with an even stronger championship run, his racing career came to an abrupt halt. At this time in his life, racing was not his highest priority as he instead devoted more time to the lumber company that he had started back in Oregon. Feeling satisfied with what he had accomplished in NASCAR, he stepped away from the sport, working at his business and raising his family for the next 11 years. This hiatus came to an end in 1965, as he dabbled with racing part-time in the NASCAR West Series, which would later become known as the ARCA Series West.

McGriff started off his return after the decade-long hiatus with a partial season in the West Series, then known as the Pacific Coast Late Model Series. In his four recorded starts, McGriff finished third twice with the other two races ending early due to mechanical failure. He continued on a similar part-time schedule in the series for the next few years, which saw him get a win at Yakima Speedway in 1967 and Rogue Valley Raceway in 1970. However, his racing itinerary picked up big time in 1971 as McGriff not only ran 15 of the 26 races in the West Series, but also competed in three Cup Series events by virtue of the two series running concurrent combination races with each other. This marked his first Cup action in 17 years, setting a then-record for longest amount of time between starts in the main series.

While his Cup attempts themselves were nothing special that season, taking a best finish of 12^th, McGriff had a breakout year on the West Series side. He scored six wins on the season, including going back-to-back at his hometown Portland Speedway and Canada’s Langley Speedway, ending up ninth in points despite missing 11 races. As the Cup Series entered what is now considered its ‘modern era’ in 1972, McGriff continued to impress with fifth-place runs at Riverside International Raceway and Texas World Speedway, along with another top-10 at Ontario Motor Speedway. In addition to the limited Cup starts, he ran the full West Series schedule for the first time and had arguably the most dominant season of his career. After a modest start, McGriff hit his stride at the midway point of the year, finishing either first or second in 14 straight races. This span also included a whopping five-race winning streak lasting from early July to mid-August. Once the season came to a close, McGriff racked up 12 wins, 22 top-fives and 26 top-10s, though he finished second in the standings to fellow west coast racing legend Ray Elder.

McGriff went back to running a part-time West schedule in 1973, though this saw him pick up two more victories. On the Cup Series side, McGriff would race in his first-ever Daytona 500 at the famed Daytona International Speedway. This was particularly significant for McGriff as a close friend of Bill France. Before construction even began on the speedway in 1957, McGriff was invited onto France’s private plane, with the pair flying over Daytona Beach and France pointing out the site of where he was planning on having the new racetrack be built. McGriff showed speed throughout the week, qualifying sixth for the 500. He did not disappoint on race day as he had possibly his best Cup Series race outside of his breakout 1954 campaign. Although race leader Buddy Baker was in his own galaxy, McGriff remained inside the top-10 throughout the afternoon. Late in the going, however, several competitors were forced behind the wall due to engine issues. This included the likes of Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, and even Baker himself, while McGriff’s power plant stayed intact. As Richard Petty scored his fourth career Daytona 500 win, McGriff took the checkered flag five laps down for an impressive fifth-place finish.

McGriff went winless in both 1974 and 1975 in his limited West Series starts, and both years saw him make five Cup races with one top-10 each. In 1976, McGriff was provided with a unique opportunity, as NASCAR itself fielded a pair of entries in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race held in Le Mans, France. McGriff was tapped as one of the five drivers, as Cup Series regular Dick Brooks, retired Cup racer Dick Hutcherson and sports car veteran Marcel Mignot took control of the other entry. McGriff’s co-driver would be none other than his own son, Doug McGriff, who had also dabbled in the West Series earlier in the decade. Bill France was appropriately named as the honorary starter for the event, though he unfortunately wouldn’t have much time to see one of his cars on track. The #4 Dodge piloted by the McGriffs suffered a blown engine just two laps in, forcing them to watch the other 23 hours and 50 minutes from the pits. The trio of Brooks, Hutcherson and Mignot had better luck, but they too were done in before the one-third mark thanks to a broken gearbox. The race was eventually won by a Porsche driven by Formula One racer Jacky Ickx and two-time Le Mans winner Gijs van Lennep.

Outside of the disappointing Le Mans run, McGriff only appeared in two Cup and West races each, failing to score a top-10. However, in 1977, his West schedule picked up significantly as he attempted 10 of the series’ 20 races. He was unable to reach victory lane, but claimed four top-fives and five top-10s for a 13^th-place points finish. McGriff only ran one race each in 1978 and 1979, but that would change at the start of the new decade as he would run the full West Series schedule for the first time in eight years. His 1980 season did not see the same level of success as his previous full-time outing, but it was still quite respectable as he picked up four top-fives and four top-10s racing for three different car owners. Despite the chaos, McGriff earned a fifth-place finish in points.

McGriff found more stability in 1981, teaming up with owner Gerald Craker for another run at the West title. After a slow start to the season with the #01 due to three engine failures in the first five races, McGriff rattled off three straight top-fives in the summer. However, the gremlins would catch up the team once again, as McGriff fell out with mechanical woes in each of last four races. Regardless, he claimed the sixth spot in the final standings. Looking for a fresh start, McGriff left Craker’s team for the #04 owned by Gary Smith in 1982. Unfortunately, this pairing also led to a fair share of mechanical failures, coupled with McGriff missing two races during the summer. As a result, McGriff fell back to 10^th in the final standings, but his most noteworthy undertaking of 1982 took place with his return to Le Mans.

This time around in the 24-hour race, McGriff was co-drivers with Brooks, who had been running in the Cup Series on a limited basis for the past couple of seasons. Driving the #80 Chevy Camaro fielded by veteran team owner Billy Hagan, McGriff got much more track time than his 1976 effort, but this isn’t to say that the race went smoothly for them. Another broken gearbox led to the team being stuck in the garage for four hours, though they were able to return eventually and still be running at the finish, completing 141 circuits around the 8.46-mile track.

In 1983, the partnership with Gary Smith would begin to bear more fruit, with McGriff going to victory lane for the first time in 10 years after taking the win at Sears Point International Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway). He would follow it up with another victory at Riverside as he ended the bounce back year with six top 10s and a third-place points result. An underwhelming 1984 campaign saw McGriff go winless and finish 10^th in points after missing one race, but he would return to form in 1985. Starting off the year with a bang, McGriff won the season opening race at Sears Point in dominating fashion, leading 57 of the 74 laps. In the remainder of the first half, he put together three more top-fives, then kicked off the second half with four top-10s. Included in that total were victories at Yakima and the road course of Willow Springs International Motorsports Park. With two races to go, McGriff looked to be in good shape for his first career West Series title, though competitors Jim Robinson and Ruben Garcia were hot on his heels. They would get the slip up they were looking for at the half-mile short track of Mesa Marin Speedway, as McGriff was out of the race after just 24 laps with a blown engine. Robinson later had engine issues of his own, though he managed a decent 13^th-place finish. Garcia cut into the points lead the most, leading 79 laps on the way to the win. The final race of the season at Riverside, which also happened to be a combination race with the Cup Series, would be a three-way battle for the championship. However, McGriff, who usually ran well at road courses, uncharacteristically struggled and fell multiple laps down. Robinson and Garcia both went laps down as well, though they were able to keep a comfortable gap over McGriff. As the checkered flag fell, it would be Robinson claiming the title with a 12^th-place finish (second among West Series drivers) with McGriff five laps off the pace. Despite the disappointing end to the season, he held off Garcia for the runner-up spot in points, taking three victories, seven top-fives and nine top-10s in the process. However, he was determined not to let history repeat itself in 1986.

With the West schedule being shortened from 12 races down to just eight for 1986, no championship hopeful could afford a slow start to the season. At first, it looked like McGriff could be headed down this path with no top-fives in his first two starts, but grabbed a solid third at Evergreen Speedway. However, McGriff would be dealt a massive blow at Calgary’s Race City Speedway, as he was caught up in an early wreck after leading several laps. This left him needing to go on a serious hot streak in the second half, and it would have to start with a great run at a brand new location. The track in question was the streets of Tacoma, Washington, and the temporary street course would be the perfect opportunity for McGriff to showcase his road racing prowess. Starting fifth on the grid, he trailed behind pole winner Derrike Cope for much of the event, but was still far ahead of the rest of the competition as he and Cope were the only drivers left on the lead lap. With 13 laps to go, McGriff made his move around Cope for the lead and the eventual win, touching off what became a three-race win streak.

At Portland International Raceway (not to be confused with the Portland Speedway short track mentioned earlier), McGriff tamed the 1.92-mile road course, thus getting West Series wins at both of his hometown tracks. In the season’s penultimate race at Willow Springs, McGriff flexed his road course mastery by leading 30 of the event’s 50 laps on the way to victory and the points lead. This left a month-and-a-half long break until the season finale at Riverside, with rookie Chad Little and fellow series veteran Bill Schmitt still in contention. In another Cup Series combination race, McGriff had to deal with a familiar foe as his engine expired with less than 25 laps to go. This left him 26^th in the final running order, but fortunately for him he was still fifth among the West competitors. Also playing into his favor was the fact that Little had dropped out of the race earlier with an engine failure of his own, though Schmitt was solidly inside the top-20. While Schmitt finished first in the field of West Series drivers, it wouldn’t be enough to overtake McGriff, who clinched his first career West Series championship from the garage area. Over 40 years after competing in his first-ever race, McGriff was finally a NASCAR champion, and he did so on the strength of three wins, five top-fives and seven top-10s.

McGriff looked for a repeat in 1987 and he made a strong case, grabbing wins at Sears Point and Mesa Marin along with four top-fives and five top-10s. However, this time Little would get the better of him, getting top-10s in all eight races for the West championship while McGriff finished in the runner-up spot, 50 points back. McGriff continued running the full West schedule in 1988, but he also added an unexpected event to his plate. On August 14^th, McGriff made his first Cup Series start not in conjunction with the West Series since an 11^th-place run at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1975. Driving his self-owned Pontiac at Watkins Glen International, he overcame a late spin to finish a respectable 25^th, albeit two laps down to race winner Ricky Rudd. As for his West Series season, which saw him part ways with Smith and return to fielding his own cars, McGriff went winless but was able to secure two top-fives and three top-10s for a fifth-place points finish.

In his age-61 season in 1989, McGriff set a record for oldest driver to win a NASCAR event on May 13th, leading the final 13 laps at Mesa Marin en route to victory lane. He would also be the highest finishing West driver at Sears Point, which also happened to be the first Cup Series race held at Sonoma. With the series expanding to 11 races, McGriff took one win, four top-fives and six top-10s for a fourth-place finish in the standings. However, 1989 would be his latest season with a win.

After two years as an owner-driver, McGriff joined up with new owner Bob Lipseia in 1990, though he still kept his familiar #04. Unfortunately, the 1990 season did not go according to plan for either side, as the team missed the final four races. McGriff and the 04 team bounced back in 1991, making all nine races with a best finish of third coming at Mesa Marin. They picked up three top-fives and six top-10s, securing fourth in points.

Changes came about for McGriff in 1992, as he vacated the #04 for the first time in his West Series career. This was due to another team change, as he drove the #50 Chevy for TTC Motorsports. The new team struggled almost immediately, missing five races while suffering race-ending mechanical failures in another three. McGriff stayed with TTC for 1993, but switched the number back to his traditional 04. Perhaps this was a good luck charm, as he strung together three top-fives to start the season, including a runner-up finish at Mesa Marin. The team was still going strong into the second half of the year, getting two more top-fives at Shasta Speedway and Evergreen. Sadly, the team closed down abruptly with six races left in the season, ending McGriff’s shot at a second title as he was unable to find another ride. Even so, he managed to grab a top-10 points finish thanks to his five top-fives. 1993 turned out to be McGriff’s last attempt at a full season for quite a while, as well as the final Cup Series start of his career with the West Series race at Sears Point on May 16th also being a combination race. Although McGriff finished last in the field with a blown engine after just 27 laps, McGriff still had an impressive overall resume of four wins, 17 top-fives and 31 top-10s in 87 starts at the Cup level.

While his Cup career was in the rearview mirror, McGriff still had a lot of racing left. Running part-time in the West Series throughout the rest of the 1990s, he notably claimed a third-place finish at Portland Speedway in 1995 and took ninth at the then-newly built Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 1998. However, in 2001, McGriff opted to return once again to full-time competition, as he would run the 14-race schedule at 73 years of age. Driving the #04 Chevy for Bill McAnally (who would go on to field a multi-truck operation in the Truck Series), McGriff ended up with a decent 13^th-place points position, highlighted by a fifth-place showing at Tucson Raceway Park to go along with four other top-10s.

Coming back to his self-owned team once again, McGriff ran the first three races of the 2002 West season, in which he scored his last top-10 finish to date with a seventh at Phoenix International Raceway (now Phoenix Raceway). After that season-opening race, though, McGriff finished outside the top-20 in the next two starts, before quietly announcing his retirement.

McGriff stayed retired from racing for the next several years, focusing on his real estate development business based near Tucson, Arizona, for most of the 2000s. However, in 2009, McGriff had a change of heart, and made yet another comeback to the West Series. Despite failing to qualify in what would have been his return to NASCAR at Infineon Raceway (previously known as Sears Point), he made the field at both Portland International Raceway and Miller Motorsports Park (now Utah Motorsports Campus), coming home 13^th and 19^th respectively. He raced those same tracks in 2010 to similar results, being credited with 17^th in both events.

With road courses still being his strong suit, he gave Infineon another try in 2011 in addition to the races at Portland and MMP. Similar to the previous two years, McGriff kept up the consistency with top-20 finishes in all three races. He made a one-off start at Sonoma Raceway (which was using its current name by this point) in 2012, crossing the line 18^th before taking another break from racing. On May 5^th, 2018, McGriff made his way back to the then-renamed NASCAR Pro Series West at Tucson, the site of his most recent top-five. He even reunited with the same team owner, as his #04 entry was fielded by Bill McAnally Racing. Although McGriff finished last in the 18-car field, he was running at the finish of a race he started off by playing the Star-Spangled Banner for on trombone. While the run itself wasn’t spectacular, the mere fact of a driver competing in a NASCAR race at 90 years old made headlines as McGriff not only became the oldest active NASCAR driver, but also one of the oldest athletes in any sport.

Although McGriff has not appeared in a race since 2018, the family name is still active in the racing world as his granddaughter, Mariah, has competed in Pro Stock events in Tucson since 2014. This made her the fifth member of the McGriffs to go racing, as Doug McGriff also made 11 starts in the West Series in addition to his 1976 Le Mans venture and Hershel McGriff Jr., who often served as his father’s crew chief, ran in lower-level NASCAR series throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hershel Sr.’s younger brother, Norman, made three Cup Series starts in 1957, getting two top-10s at Eureka Speedway and Portland Speedway.

After being named to NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers list in 1998 (and subsequently included on the follow up 75 Greatest Drivers list), McGriff was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2023. According to the “NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers” book, longtime team owner Richard Childress stated that, once McGriff turns 100 years of age, he’ll field a car for him, though it doesn’t specify which series. Before the 2020 season, the NASCAR Pro Series West was rebranded as the “ARCA Series West” following NASCAR’s acquisition of ARCA two years prior, meaning the series that was McGriff’s bread and butter for most of his career may or may not be considered a part of the same entity depending on how you look at it, but that’s a discussion for another time. As it stands right now, McGriff claimed 34 career wins, 100 top-fives and 146 top-10s in 271 starts in the West Series, but I, along with many NASCAR fans, would certainly love to see another start added to that total in 2028.